(September 10, 2010 at 9:35 am)tackattack Wrote: Restated: Assuming the soul exists (I know it's a big leap for some), Would the soul be eternal or temporary? eternal is self defining and we'll define soul as any of the following or your own definition:
1.the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.
2. the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul.
3. the disembodied spirit of a deceased person: He feared the soul of the deceased would haunt him.
4. The part of self that is intangible or spiritual and distinct from the brain and mind or any intellecual, feeling or willing aspects thereof.
None of your definitions actually seems to have much meaning. What on earth is 'the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans'? This seems like vague theological waffle to me. Indeed, I can't see how a soul can meaningfully be associated with a person unless it has his or her personality traits. Certainly definition 4) seems to be a very strange thing, and, if neither body nor mind, I can't see what it would be.
For any of these definitions, I'd have no idea how to start deciding whether the soul was eternal or not. Sorry. Presumably, as it wouldn't be subject to the laws of physics, it could exist eternally. But it might not, if it were governed by some supernatural laws.
Who knows? Who cares?
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
